PRODUCT REVIEW
Anderberg Custom Guitars
WILLE
BY BRIAN BARR
Today it seems more and more bells and
whistles are being added to the guitar, which
makes the possibilities seem endless. Electric
modeling guitars can sound like an acoustic,
a sitar or a Hammond organ. It can make
your head spin when you’re thinking of buying a new instrument. Couple that with the
unlimited resources provided by the internet,
and you can spend months looking for your
next guitar. While there are plenty of manufacturers seeking to push the instrument into
new territory, an old saying comes to mind…
that I had no major tuning issues while playing this guitar.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
That is exactly where Michael Anderberg
found his niche, applying the traditional
approach to guitar building, and by doing so
he’s created, in his own words, “a balls-out
rock guitar that’s easy to play.” Not that this
isn’t a highly versatile instrument, as I quickly
discovered. The Anderberg Wille, named
after his grandfather, is a 5-piece laminated
neck-thru design, with mahogany neck and
body. The top is hand-carved poplar with
black lacquer finish and painted binding-style
detail. The neck features a two-way adjust-
able truss rod with a 25” scale rosewood
fretboard, 22 medium jumbo frets and a
compound radius of 12” to 16”.
Not just a rocker
When I plugged the Wille in, I ran it through
a Sound City L120 and an Orange 4x12 cab
using a Keeley Mod DS- 1 distortion, and
Ooh la la Soda-Meiser fuzz box. The Wille
comes with Seymour Duncan pickups, a
Distortion SH- 6 in the bridge and a ‘ 59 SH- 1
in the neck position. There is a 3-way toggle
switch, and the single Volume and Tone
knobs are both push-pull: the Volume knob
splits the neck, and the Tone knob splits the
bridge. The pickups Anderberg chose seem
to be a magic combination that covers all
the bases. Although it’s intended mainly as
a rocker, I found it to be a highly versatile
instrument for almost any musical genre.
The bridge pickup screams with some high-gain distortion, providing excellent clarity
for shredding, and a tight mid-to-low bass
response for rhythm—something any metal-head or rock guitarist will love. It’s not quite
what the doctor ordered when it comes
to playing clean, but that’s what the neck
pickup is for… although if you back off the
volume on the guitar a bit, you can get a
“dirty clean” with lots of bite.
Anderberg modeled the Wille on a
Les Paul. The main complaint he heard
from guitarists about the LP was the
weight. He addressed that issue with
some unique routed chambers, which
also give the Wille even more sustain and
resonance then your average cham-
bered electric. Playing the guitar
unplugged, I could hear more
body resonance, and it seemed
louder than other electrics.
Plugged in, the sustain is
unbelievable. Built from
mahogany, the Wille is not
a light guitar by any means,
but it’s not as heavy as a Les
Paul. The bridge is a Schaller
Tune-O-Matic with stop
tailpiece and Grover tuners.
It’s worth mentioning that the
guitar arrived at PG in tune, and
The mid-position using both pickups is my
favorite setting. With the highs backed off a
little here, I could achieve more tonal range,
providing plenty of low-to-midrange. Without
backing off on the guitar’s volume, this setting achieves some full sounding but clear
and punchy clean tones that are not too thin.
This position also responded admirably when
coupled with either the distortion or the fuzz,
providing excellent resonance and clarity
without sounding too scoopy. In the neck
position, the fuzz from the Soda-Meiser was
my best friend on the dirty side of the equation, conjuring up rich fuzz tones with plenty
of low end. There was a bit of break-up from
the amp in this setting, but that may be
attributable to the power of the Soda-Meiser
because the DS- 1 cleaned it up a bit more.
Using just the neck pickup for distortion has
never been my cup of tea anyway, so I may
be a bit biased. As for the clean setting, the
